[E3 2016] Winning the amazing race with Forza Horizon 3

One of my favorite trailers from E3 2016 was undoubtedly Forza Horizon 3. Yes, I’m a car guy, and yes, I was not a fan of the original Forza Horizon (taking super cars off road seemed like the most implausible thing in racing), but the series has grown on me. FH2 is my favorite racing game of this new generation, upending the mainline Forza games due to the ability to drive everywhere and still having great looking cars.

Forza Horizon 3 doesn’t necessarily change that open world racing recipe, but by shifting the location to Australia we now get some of the most awesome environments possible to drive in. The E3 demo of the game focuses on showing off those landscapes, and I can fully say that yes, it succeeds in every way possible. In fact, I took a bullet for the team and played the demo four times just to make sure.

The demo is split up in to three parts, each to showcase different aspects of the Australian terrain, before throwing us into an actual crazy race against a Jeep — but more on that in a bit. Of the three cars available (Lamborghini Centenario, BMW M4 Coupe, and Ford Cobra) I choose the stalwart Bimmer, as I’m a huge German car nut and the vehicle handles well across terrain types. Just before the race kicks off we’re presented with four different driving goals (drifting, combos, etc) to achieve by the time our demo is up to win some kind of physical prize. The goals are more or less there to get us to understand the controls behind the game, so there probably isn’t a real way to fail them.

Okay, real talk: the vistas presented in Forza Horizon 3 are absolutely gorgeous. As my BMW rounds corners and jumps hilly terrain, I can’t help but stare at everything, so much so that it hampers my driving ability. My Bimmer flies through grassy fields and onto both paved and dirt roads, on highways, and even through neighborhoods, obliterating some poor chap’s fence. I splash across puddles, and water droplets hit my windshield and the roofline of my car. The rolling, shifting clouds are perhaps even more stunning, pushing the Xbox One S’ ability to use HDR (High Dynamic Range) visuals for an awe-inspiring experience.

After completing this first section I’m sent into a new area, now driving an off-road truck through the Outback and wooded areas. Mud is everywhere, hills launch me into dusty banks, and even the sound of branches scraping against my vehicle’s sides relay a visceral feeling. At one point I exit a plain and arrive on a beach, speeding through both sand and shallow water, in the open and through rocky crags. It’s possibly the most memorable waterside course since Koopa Troopa Beach in Mario Kart 64. I lose track of where I am, driving too far into the water to move forward. The third section puts us in a dune buggy, driving through sand and dirt and sand and dirt. But, REALLY PRETTY sand and dirt.

The final section of the demo is race through all of the game’s environments against a Jeep Wrangler attached to a helicopter. Yes, a car hanging from a helicopter in mid air, only to be dropped in front of me just before the finish line.

I still won.

Thankfully Horizon 3 is open world, so I’ll be able to just take a nice Sunday drive without inhibition if I want to when the full game releases. Knowing that, I make it a point to view as much as I can of the scenery, even going wildly off course and behind my virtual opponents, before holding the “Y” button to rewind back onto the path. It’s a dirty trick, but one way to see as much as possible before my time is up.

The game controls just as well as any Forza game, in that it’s a near-perfect mix of simulation and reality, with minimal rubber-banding if we’re too far behind. Each vehicle feels very different, from the BMW to the dune buggy to whatever else I grabbed along the way, but still very accessible and enjoyable. Of the four times I tried it (with and without wheel, on a giant driving rig or standing in front of a screen) not once did anything feel lackluster.

By moving the location to Australia, developer Playground Games has opened up the world even more to beautiful scenery, worthy of driving in a car to see. Long gone are the days of repetitive asphalt roads and gray tracks, and we’re all the more happy about it. The stunning Forza Horizon 3 arrives this September on Xbox One and Windows 10. I’m hoping that we get a good range of Australian cars to go along for the ride. A classic Falcon or two would be boss.